Twin Tasks

Apropos of the news Tread cautiously on growth.. which says that Bimal Jalans prescription for employment generation and poverty eradication is the only panacea for the countrys ills. Tho-ugh there has always been lot of drum-beating about the tasks of employment generation and pove-rty eradication, precious little has been done on these fronts so far.

In the banking industry itself, there has been no recruitment in the last 15 years so. On the contrary, there has been substantial reduction in the workforce due to retirements, VRS, resignations, deaths, etc. The backlog of the unemployed is increasing in geometrical progression adding to frustration which in turn is resulting in increasing white collar crimes.

The report rightly states that the climate here is such that there is no dishonour in failure to comply with the repayment schedule. On the contrary, it lends an aura of respectability and recognition to corporate defaulters. And while the defaulters wax eloquent, bankmen are grilled and taken to task for faults that are not their own.